Sarah Elliott

Sarah Elliott

Background

Sarah Elliott is the chairwoman of Republicans Overseas UK, a political organisation which aims to support and represent the interest of American citizens living in the UK and encourage wider participation in the US federal elections.

Describing her job to the Conservative Book Club, Elliott said: “I bring together a select group of senior transatlantic executives over lunch to meet with global business leaders in an off-the-record setting 8-10 times a year. The speakers range from ambassadors to the chairman of BAE Systems to the Governor of the Bank of England.”

She served as a major gifts officer — managing fundraising affairs for Americans for Prosperity, a US right-wing libertarian campaign group co-founded by David Koch, a fossil fuel magnate who co-owns the Koch Industries.

Koch is well-known for funding a host of organisations which spread disinformation about climate change and Americans for Prosperity has consistently opposed government regulation on power generation.

In her book, “Dark Money: The hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right”, Jane Mayer wrote that Americans for Prosperity has been accused by critics of “using the guise of nonprofit status to work, behind a screen of anonymity, on behalf of the Kochs' corporate and political interests”.

In an introduction to a video called “Climate Change Gets the Cold Shoulder”, uploaded in December 2015, Americans For Prosperity wrote: “Environmentalists are frustrated. They’ve worked so hard, for so long, to get the United States on board with a binding international climate treaty. So far every attempt has failed, in large part because the American public is just not convinced.

“The main problem with alarmist propaganda of the last two decades is that they can only cry wolf so many times before the public begins to doubt the story.”

The video was later removed from the group’s website.

Elliott also worked as the manager of political research at the Americans for Tax Reform advocacy group, which according to the group’s website, “opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle”.

The group has repeatedly opposed a carbon tax and previously denied the global climate consensus arguing that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was causing a “global cooling”.

Key Deeds

September 2018

Elliott wrote her first opinion column for The Times’ Red Box, titled “What Republicans in Britain think of Trump, and his chances of survival”.

She criticised Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation into whether Donald Trump and his campaign aides colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election as a “witch hunt” and a waste of taxpayers’ money.

She wrote: “To the Democrats’ chagrin, still no indictment of collusion. To Republicans, this is a waste of money and needs to wrap up. If Mr Mueller hasn’t found anything by now, most likely he won’t.”

According to a Republicans Overseas press release, Elliott, then vice chair, and Malise Sundstrom, then the organisation’s chairwoman, “met with a Number 10 government relations team to see how Republicans Overseas could work to strengthen political and cultural ties and reinforce the Special Relationship”.

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE